Cheryl Telmer

The current Echinobase (www.echinobase.org) is the third generation resource supporting genomic research on echinoderms, with new improved genome assemblies of species used for genomics, developmental biology and gene regulatory network analyses. Search and BLAST tools are available on the landing page or through the over 38,000 gene pages. Gene pages also display gene model HGNC compliant names, multispecies orthology, GO terms, a link to the JBrowse genome browser, and a gene expression plotting tool. Tabs beyond the summary gene page provide gene specific literature, transcripts, expression data, protein sequences and interactants. Automated literature collection has retrieved over 18,000 publications for automated and manual curation. The Echinoderm Anatomical Ontology has been developed with standardized anatomy terms for developmental stages and parts that have been organized into a hierarchy with a visualization tool to graph the relationships between anatomical structures as they develop. To support the community, collections of data, protocols and other resources are shared using EchinoWiki and an FTP site. To enable interdisciplinary and collaborative studies, research, descriptions and contact information of community members and groups are available and searchable.